The furigoma resulted in three tokins, giving challenger Sato the blackpieces in the fifth and decisive game of this Kio match. This was ahard-fought match, but they don’t come much tougher than what happened inthis game…

It looks like black can break through with 31.Sx2d, but after 32.B4d whitecan strongly develop his major pieces. For example, 33.S3e Bx3e Rx2a+ S7b isgood for black because even if black picks up a second piece for the silverafter +Rx1a, “the bishop on 8h is in a hideous position, making itimpossible for the static rook side to win” (Sato).

Not only has white made a strong tokin on 3g and exchanged the passivebishop on 4b, he has forced black to drop a pawn on the 7th file, so blackno longer has the pawn drop on 7b to shake up the anaguma castle.

The first move in byoyomi by Sato and a serious mistake. We will see why ina short while. The rook drop in itself is not a bad move, but the square iswrong. If Sato would have dropped the rook on 2b, it seems that black has adecisive advantage.

110.G*5i! 03:59:00 03:54:00

Dropping a gold on 5i is rarely seen and almost always bad, but Kubo mightmake this his signature move. After winning the 6th game of the Osho with agold drop on 5i, here it is again.

Here Sato thought he had lost the game because of 136.S*9g. Kubo didn’t likethis because of 137.Kx9g +Rx8i S*9h and he thought that black could fightback. However, after +Rx9i N8e (attacking the rook, so Kubo thought thiscould not be played) P*7g! white has a decisive advantage. For example, N*7dL*7c Nx8b G7ax8b wins for white.

137.K9h-9g 03:59:00 03:58:00138.+R6h-5i? 03:59:00 03:58:00

Sato was already very relieved that Kubo had let him off the hook with136.+R7i-6h, but here he must have pinched himself.

139.B*2f! 03:59:00 03:58:00

Now white has to give up the rook that was gifted to him earlier on because139.+Rx8i fails to 140.+Bx7a and Gx7a Bx8b+ leads to mate.

And game over after 166.Kx6i +Bx4f P*5g, because +B4e fails to Lx8c+ andafter either Sx8c or Gx8c, black wins with Rx7a+ followed by Nx8c=. In thepress room the analysis was stopped and preparations were underway towelcome a new Kio title holder.

167.S4ex5d?? 03:59:00 03:59:00

A blunder that throws away the game and the match. Sato said after the gamethat he never even looked at 167.Kx6i.

The reason Sato played 167.Sx5d was that he thought that black could play171.+Rx7a here. However, if white takes the other rook with 172.+Bx4b theneven thought it is a close call, there is no mate after Nx8c=.

The simple threat is G*8d, but there is no good defense, so Sato resignedhere. A great game that had everything that makes shogi such a great game.Sato will be very disappointed that he let this one slip away. On the otherhand, Kubo will be delighted with being able to claw back from the abyss andkeep his two major titles. This was the last game of the 2009-2010 season,but it was so impressive that it was selected as the best game of theseason.